It’s always interesting seeing Africans appreciated for their efforts and if anything has given a platform to people of the continent to better articulate their stories, TED is it. This year, the annual TEDGlobal Conference shall even make its way to one of East Africa’s finer cities, Arusha in Tanzania as we hear from 21 of the world’s innovators. Of the 21 announced, TED calls on 10 African fellows with representatives from Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
The decision to travel to Arusha marks a return to the city 10 years after the 2007 edition of the TEDGlobal Conference which featured Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, William Kamkwamba and Seyi Oyesola and tagged ‘Africa: The Next Chapter’ was hosted there.
Acquaint yourself with the 10 Africans who made the list and if interested you can apply to attend the conference which shall run from August 27-August 30th here.
Walé Oyéjidé (Nigeria | USA) – Walé Oyéjidé is a designer and artist for Ikiré Jones and will be speaking about his purpose as a designer.
Carl Joshua Ncube (Zimbabwe) – Ncube is a stand up artist who uses his craft to consciously touch on topics that some may regard as taboos on the continent.
Kasiva Mutua (Kenya) – Mutua is a percussionist who through her work has tried to push for better representation of African women in music. She fuses African traditional music with jazz, hip-hop, reggae and zouk.
Adong Judith (Uganda)- Judith is a playwright and director who uses her work to inspire conversation on social issues across a multitude of fields including abuse of power and sexuality.
Saran Kaba Jones (Liberia | USA)- Jones is the CEO and founder of FACE Africa, an organisation committed to improving water, sanitation and hygiene practices across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Robert Hakiza (DRC | Uganda)- Hakiza is one of the founders of Young African Refugees for Integral Development which works actively to build refugee communities through education.
Abdigani Diriye (Somalia | USA)- Diriye is a computer scientist whose work in Somalia and Somaliland has done a great deal for their various technology scenes.
Mennat El Ghalid (France | Egypt)- El Ghalid is a cofounder of ConScience, a nonprofit working in Science education as well as a microbiologist who has dedicated her time to working on fungal infections humans suffer from, their causes and treatments.
Yasin Kakande (Uganda)- Kakande is an investigative journalist who worked undercover in the Middle East as part of research on the discrimination migrant workers are subject to.
Katlego Kolanyane-Kesupile (Botswana)- Katlego is a writer and educator as well as one of the brains behind Botswana’s Queer Shorts Showcase Festival, the country’s only LGBT-themed theatre festival.
Source: CNN